We are deluged with your comments about our article about the 59-unit housing project at the Food Bin site on Mission Street, which has no onsite parking. I’m turning this column over to your comments on our social media sites.

NOT RIGHT

Whoever approves this needs to have their parking spots taken away from both their residents and their place of employment.

Affordable housing is based on a $57 hourly minimum wage. Think about that.

You have to earn $28.83/hour full time to be able to live in these “affordable units” and only 8 of the units are $28.83/hour full time affordable. All no parking for residence or for the business below the units.

How can someone think this is a good idea?

Paul Doherty

NOT SO BAD

I’m hopeful about this project because of the ongoing updates to Metro, ongoing improvements to the bikeability of roads, traffic calming projects that protect pedestrians, and the fact that it’s building dense housing close to important services like groceries, medical, schools. I know plenty of car-less people in Santa Cruz and I hope the trajectory that we’re on allows more and more people to live without needing cars. This is the answer to our housing crisis.

Marisa Gomez

FACT CHECK

This Good Times article contains TWO MAJOR ERRORS that have caused confusion and consternation among readers. First, $57,650 is the upper limit of “very low income” for an individual to qualify for any of the eight very low income apartments — not the low end of a range of incomes. And, second, each of the SRO apartments planned for this project will have full — not partial, as the article implies — bathrooms and kitchens. Editor: please correct the online version of article, and admit to these errors in a public statement. The gross misinformation spread in the article is very damaging to public discourse about this project. Such errors also damage the credibility and reputation of your newspaper.

Jim MacKenzie

Photo Contest

FOGBOW over Porter Sesnon State Park, Aptos.Photograph by Dianna Glidden

Good Idea

For five years beginning in 2015, Santa Cruz County’s Sobering Center was a place for detainees who were under the influence of drugs or alcohol and first-time DUI suspects.

That program freed up jail space, allowed arresting officers to get back on the street and kept the suspects out of emergency rooms.

But the Coronavirus and a fire forced the center to close in 2020. Last week county officials cut the ribbon on the new Sobering Center, located at 265 Water St., just a stone’s throw from the Main Jail.

Good Work

For more than two years, Aptos residents have had to travel to other areas to check out a book, movie, magazine.

Sunday, Aptos opened its community hub, or as Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend put it, its “new living room.”

The 12,400-square-foot building is outfitted with updated technology, an outdoor reading room, garden, patio, children’s reading area, rideshare and bike parking, group study rooms, a gallery, a community room and terrace, public art and historic displays in partnership with the Aptos History Museum.

Quote of the Week

“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.”—Mary Oliver